WESTBROOK - IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. announced today that it is growing faster than anticipated. The company now projects that it will invest more than $168 million in its Westbrook facility over a 20 year period, a 31 percent increase over its previous estimate.

In 2006, when the company signed a tax increment financing agreement with the city, it had projected investing $128 million. The additional investment should lead to more property tax revenue from the facility than the city had anticipated.

Since the agreement, the company says it has created 600 new jobs, also surpassing original projections.

The company's headquarters is located in a large building on Eisenhower Drive in the Five Star Industrial Park. Since 2006, the company has purchased the building, which it had leased since 1991, and has expanded it by 70,000 sqaure feet.

The company says it plans to continue to renovate and expand its facility.

The company, which employs 1,600 people in southern Maine, develops diagnostic instrument systems for the pet care industry.